Last week, the Government published its sickness absence review report...
The Court of Appeal in Dean &Dean v Dionissou-Moussaoui has ruled that a tribunal should not necessarily award costs where "scandalous and vexatious" claims are withdrawn or struck out at a PHR on jurisdictional grounds if the claims are contested and the evidence has not been tested....
In the case of City of Edinburgh v Wilkinson, the Court of Session has held that claimants in an equal pay claim, who were employed in a variety of posts within the Council, including: schools, hostels and libraries, could utilise comparators working for the Council in different locations and posts....
Scottish Slaughterman, Mark Lynch, is suing his former employers for racial discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal in the Employment Tribunal after bullying allegedly forced him to quit his job. Mr Lynch alleges that throughout his seven years employment he was subjected to variety of insults from colleagues regarding his nationality, including: calling him “Jock”, “S...
In Copple & others v Littlewoods Plc & others the employer`s pension scheme had historically been closed to part- time employees...
The rate of Consumer Prices Index inflation in the UK fell slightly during October to 5%...
We mentioned in our article last week that the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, announced that he wanted employers to be able to ask older staff about their performance and retirement plans, without the threat of litigation, by being able to have protected conversations...
It was decided in JGE v English Province of Our Lady of Charity that the Catholic Church could be found to be vicariously liable for the actions of a priest....
The Equality Act 2010 (“EqA 2010”) prohibits discrimination in the workplace because of religion or belief. Guidance from case law states that a” belief” must: be a belief, not an opinion; be genuinely held; be a belief as to a weighty and substantial aspect of human life and behaviour; attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance; an...
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held in In Fraser v Southwest London St George`s Mental Health Trust that an employee on long-term sick leave must request annual leave, during the year in question, in order to be paid for it....
General Mills (Berwick) Ltd v Glowacki (2011) The EAT has found that it was not unfair to dismiss an employee for breach of health & safety procedures, just because it treated another employee in a similar scenario differently. Mr Glowacki worked as an electrician for General Mills (Berwick) Ltd. When repairing a machine, he disabled certain sensors and entered the body of the ma...
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has made a Freedom of Information request for information on the number of employment tribunal claims relating to the right to request flexible working. Figures generated by the CIPD indicate that in 2010/2011, a total of 218,100 tribunal claims were accepted. From this on 277 claims alleged that their employers had failed to consider a...
There were a number of news stories circulating last week about the Government`s possible future approach to employment law. We take a look behind the headlines, as well as examining some of the more concrete plans to shake up employment law in the future....
The case of Hussain v Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust highlighted what factors the Court should consider when deciding whether a provision should have contractual effect. It was said the relevant factors included: (a) the importance of the provision to the contractual working relationship; (b) the level of detail prescribed by the provision; (c) the certainty of what the provisi...
Thomas Salwey was employed as Security Guard at the estate of one of the UKs richest men, Felix Dennis who has an estimated fortune of £500 million.He was allegedly dismissed for failing to complete a number of tasks associated with his job, including: failing to give water to the estates chickens; not watering the lawn; not washing up cups after hims...
Okuoimose v City Facilities illustrated that in an employee’s claim for non payment of contractual wages, there is no defence for an employer to state they did have reasonable knowledge that the employee’s contract was illegal but feared they would be exposed to penalties. The EAT says the question was whether the contract was illegal, not whether it wa...
In the case of Dr Lim v Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, a hospital consultant, Dr Lim, sought an injunction to prevent the Trust from conducting disciplinary hearings into alleged capability and conduct issues. He argued that proceeding straight to a disciplinary hearing, without a prior professional standards review, was in breach of the Trust’s disciplinary and conduct poli...
In the 2010 budget the Government announced that it would adopt the Consumer Price Index (CPI) instead of the Retail Price Index (RPI) for calculating increases in public service pensions from April 2011. On Tuesday 25 October 2011 a joint legal challenge launched in the High Court by unions and other pensioners’ organisations. The Government is facing two challenges to the change. The jud...
In NHS Manchester v Fecitt and others [2011] EWCA Civ 1190, the Court of Appeal considered what the appropriate test of causation is in whistleblowing detriment cases. It held that in order to avoid liability under the whistleblowing legislation, an employer must demonstrate that the making of the protected disclosure did not materially influence (‘material’ being more than t...
Mr Screene was a financial controller for Seatwave Limited, a sporting and entertainment events ticketing business. Seatwave Limited was the victim of a fraud when approximately €1.7m was lost from its German bank account. It was Mr Screene’s responsibility to monitor this account. Following a disciplinary process the employer decided to summarily dismiss Mr Screene c...